Young Fear
by ShindeShimoto
Summary: Hojo's latest experimenting leads to an interesting conclusion. Could become multi-chaptered, if you desire it.


Young Fear

By: Shinde

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copywrited characters. I only own the oc's, which may or may not appear. This has been written for fun, and not for profit.

Sephiroth blearily raised his head, glazed eyes peering to his left. The blurred form of Hojo slowly came into focus, gazing at him with a frown. His greasy black hair looked even greasier than usual, and his brows were creased.

"Hmmm, no signs of the reaction yet," Hojo mumbled, while scribbling something illegible on a notepad.

"Reaction from what?" Sephiroth asked, idly wondering what he'd been injected with this time.

"You've become far too soft, Sephiroth. I have injected you with a serum that should reverse your growth process. When you're young enough, we shall re-train you, and stamp out this weakness of yours," Hojo scowled.

"So, you're turning me back into a child," Sephiroth said, delicately raising an eyebrow .

"It seems you've gotten your mind around that, at least," Hojo sneered, causing his brow to wrinkle farther. "Since the first injection doesn't seem to have been strong enough, I'm going to go prepare a second dose."

Hojo turned and shuffled to the far corner of the room, then passed through the door. A tingling sensation began slowly spreading through Sephiroth's body, starting by faintly touching his fingers and toes. It soon spread, and became more noticeable. The strange tingling faded soon, leaving Sephiroth feeling confused. How had he ended up on the table, and why was he there? It wasn't time for a mako injection. He sat up, his slender hands easily slipping through the now much too large restraints.

"Hojo's not watching? Surprising," Sephiroth mumbled, his voice higher than before.

Not one to waste an opportunity to escape, Sephiroth hopped down from the table, and bolted out the door. He knew that these chances were rare, and that even so, there were probably guards near the door. Seconds after Sephiroth vanished, Hojo walked back in, only to curse.

"I guess the dosage was correct after all," he mumbled after examining the unbroken restraints.

~meanwhile~

Zack paced in the hallway near Hojo's lab. He hated the place with a passion, even more so when he learned that Seph had been raised there. Finally sitting down in a waiting chair, he was startled back to his feet when a silver haired boy bolted out the door and ran down the hall.

"The heck?" Zack scratched the back of his head.

"Did you see that boy?" Hojo asked, seeming to ooze from the doorway of the lab.

"What boy? That silverish blur that just passed?" Zack replied, using the most innocent voice and expression he could muster. "Would you like me to see if I can find him?"

"If you would. He may not look it right now, but he's quite dangerous," Hojo wheezed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get 'im," Zack answered with a bright grin. _'Not like I'll bring him back, though.'_

Sephiroth slowed as he reached the nearest stairwell. _That wasn't here last time…neither were most of these doors…What's going on?!?_ He continued into the stairwell, and began to go up. _At least the lab is still in the basement._ He had passed the second floor when he heard footsteps coming up behind him. Looking behind himself, Sephiroth noticed a smiling man following him. He had very spiky black hair, and violet eyes. The man saw him looking, and so called out.

"Hey now, I'm not gonna take you back to the lab, but I do want to take you to my friends house. You can hide out there with Spike and me. I know you probably don't know me, but trust me, I'm not letting you go back to the lab," the man with the spiky hair said, his eyes showing honesty.

"Who are you, and how do you know what I'm running from?" Sephiroth answered, a little perturbed that this man seemed to be telling the truth.

"Oh! Sorry 'bout that. I'm Zack," Zack introduced, crouching down and extending his hand.

Sephiroth tilted his head and glanced down at the hand extended to him. He slowly reached out and took the hand. Ignoring Zack's bright grin, he mumbled his name. Zack shook his hand vigorously for a few seconds, before standing up again.

"We should probably get going, otherwise someone who will take you back will find us. Lets go!"

Sephiroth nodded hesitantly, but followed Zack onto the next floor. He was confused until they stopped at an elevator. Zack pushed the up button, and the doors opened after a few seconds. He glanced down at Sephiroth, and flashed his ID card. The very ID card that granted him access to the General's quarters. With a wide grin, he pressed the button for Seph's quarters. Cloud had been waiting there for a while now, and Zack knew he'd be surprised to see the new Sephiroth. When they reached the right floor, the doors opened, and Zack and Sephiroth stepped out. Of course, Sephiroth did so in a very cautious manner, and Zack laughed a little, but it also made him sad. The door to Seph's quarters was near the end of the hallway, and the walk there was silent. Sephiroth kept glancing around, waiting for someone to jump out and attack. Zack's smile faded a little, but nevertheless, he knocked on the door, waiting for Cloud to answer.

The door swung open with a whoosh, and Cloud was right in the doorway, worry and irritation written across his face. "Where were you? You said you'd be right back!"

He didn't realize that his raised voice had greatly startled little Sephiroth, who had taken a few steps back. His eyes glanced back and forth in a slightly panicked manner. Zack glanced down and the unsettled child, and quickly realized what was happening. He stared pointedly at Cloud, then looked down to Sephiroth.

"O-oh!" Cloud started, both recognizing the person before him, and his unnerved behavior. "I'm sorry, I didn't see him there! N-not that you're short, sir!"

"Hey, relax. He's not the general. He's just like a child," Zack whispered after leaning closer to Cloud, to hopefully prevent Sephiroth from hearing about who he used to be.

"Oh, okay…" Cloud nodded, but he knew that his nervousness of the general would make it harder for him to act naturally.

Zack grinned at Cloud, feeling a little sorry for his spiky blonde haired friend. He knew that Cloud was nervous around Sephiroth, and that just the fact he was smaller wouldn't help much, but he believed that he could do it.

Sephiroth glanced between Zack and the blonde man, who he thought would be the Spike that Zack mentioned earlier, as his hair certainly fit the part. Now that the blonde had stopped yelling, he looked quite nervous. It was enough that he wasn't feeling threatened any more.

"Umm, excuse me, but are you Spike?" Sephiroth finally asked. "Zack mentioned him being here, and, well, no offense, but your hair would fit the name."

Zack stared down at the little Sephiroth for a few seconds before bursting out in laughter. He hadn't realized that he'd said Spike instead of Cloud, but it seemed that Sephiroth had a great memory, even at this age.

Cloud blushed a bit, before answering, "My name is Cloud, but Zack usually calls me Spike, unfortunately. You're staying here, right?"

"Yeah! We're not letting him go back to the labs!" Zack spoke, not giving Sephiroth a chance to back out. Turning to Sephiroth, he grinned and said, "We'll keep you safe from the scientists until whatever Hojo did to you wears off."

A/N: I would greatly appreciate it if you would give me some constructive criticism, and tell me if you want this continued. I had planned for this to be multi-chaptered, but I changed it a bit to kinda end it, so it could be posted.


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